"According to CNN’s logic, African Americans shape their civic stances by playing Pokemons," Zakharova wrote on Facebook. "That is how feebly the TV channel explains the surge of racial tensions in modern America. Russians are at fault again…and the Pokemons they control."

CNN reported the campaign seemed to have been organized by activists from Black Lives Matter, a movement that supports the rights of African Americans. According to the news channel, this campaign was initiated by the Internet Research Agency, earlier branded by CNN as a so-called ‘Russian troll farm’.

According to CNN, all the accounts linked to the Don't Shoot Us company on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have been blocked at the moment, but its YouTube account still exists. The channel has more than 200 news reports and amateur videos documenting cases of police brutality committed by law enforcement agencies.

The TV channel claims that the creators of Don’t Shoot Us might be pursuing two goals: to call on African Americans to stage protests against police brutality, and to convince other US citizens that Black Lives Matter activists pose a mounting threat.

‘Russian fingerprint’ on social networks

In September, Alex Stamos, Facebook's chief security officer, claimed that during the 2016 US presidential election a Russian company spent $100,000 on disseminating political messages over social networks by creating fake accounts and pages.

According to its analysis, between June 2015 and May 2017, these accounts were interconnected and were managed from Russia.

Facebook later turned over 3,000 ads to US Congress, which is investigating the alleged attempts by Moscow to supposedly influence the US election.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had no role in placing any political ads on social networks and did not know anyone who could have been behind this.